


You Can Leave Your Hat On

by the_deep_magic



Series: A Very Critical Role Kinktober 2020 [26]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Kinktober 2020, Missing Scene, Stripping, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:08:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27298423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_deep_magic/pseuds/the_deep_magic
Summary: Day Twenty-Six: stripping“So I was thinking,” Veth says, turning a wicked grin on her husband, “if I’m gonna be trekking into a frozen wasteland, I want to spend my last night with you as hot as possible.”
Relationships: Yeza Brenatto/Nott | Veth Brenatto
Series: A Very Critical Role Kinktober 2020 [26]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1950748
Comments: 7
Kudos: 56





	You Can Leave Your Hat On

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place during C2E112, so vague spoilers up to there. I suppose it was inevitable that at least one day this month I would board the train to Smutsville but get derailed in Flufftown.

By the time Veth makes it back to their room at the Lodge of the Eclipse, Luc is just starting to crash. However, he’s still got enough energy to whine, “Mooooom, Dad’s making me go to bed when I’m not even—” his face breaks into a massive yawn “—tired.”

Yeza shoots her a rather desperate look, one that says _Please don’t decide to be the fun parent this time_ , and it makes her smile. “Tell you what,” she says, going over to the couch in the sitting room of their little suite and patting the cushion next to her. “Join me over here and I’ll tell you a story.”

“A new one?” Luc asks suspiciously, rubbing at his eyes.

“A brand new one.”

There are still a few that neither Luc nor Yeza have heard yet, so she tells Luc about Fjord’s magic falchion and how it could swallow other swords. She has to simplify a lot of the Uk’otoa connections, mostly because she doesn’t feel like getting into it, narratively speaking, but also because Luc’s eyes start to drift closed almost immediately. She sets a pillow on her lap and gently directs him to rest his head on it. Less than a minute later, he’s out cold and drooling.

She gives herself a moment to play with his hair – it’s grown so long while he and Yeza have been in Nicodranas, maybe it’s the style there – but then she carefully slips out from under the pillow. There’s a throw blanket over the back of the couch that’s big enough to tuck around him, and then she kisses him on the cheek and gives his hair a final tousle.

When she turns around, she sees that Yeza is standing in the doorway to the suite’s bedroom, where he’s clearly been listening in. “So Fjord throwing the falchion in the lava is what angered Uka—Ukelele?” he asks quietly.

“Uk’otoa,” Veth replies, ushering him into the bedroom and closing the door behind them. “And I’m not sure if it was the sword itself or the symbolism behind it. But, yeah, Uk’otoa did _not_ take kindly to that, we found out.”

“Gosh,” Yeza says, his eyes going wide. “You guys better be careful if you travel on the ocean again.”

“Oh, we’ll definitely be better prepared next time,” Veth says, but her mind is elsewhere. “You know, this could be the last night we have together for a while. I’ll try to pop in if I can, but traveling by magic is supposed to be screwy up where we’re going.”

Yeza nods. “Please don’t take any unnecessary risks. I mean, I always love seeing you – _we_ always love seeing you – but I’d much rather miss you for a few weeks and have you come back safe.”

Veth feels a lump grow in her throat. If she’s honest, that’s exactly what she wanted Yeza to say, because these short visits with her family are so hard. They’re better than nothing, of course, but they’re a constant reminder of what she’s missing, and saying goodbye gets a little harder every time. Paradoxically, it’s also a little harder every time Yeza is so perfectly understanding about everything.

But that’s absolutely not what she wants to be thinking about right now. “So I was thinking,” she says, turning a wicked grin on her husband, “if I’m gonna be trekking into a frozen wasteland, I want to spend my last night with you as _hot_ as possible.”

Yeza’s eyes go wide and his cheeks turn pink, as though this was the last thing he was expecting upon finding himself alone with his wife, the adorable man. “But Luc’s right out there.”

Veth’s grin just gets wider. “Let me show you a little spell I cooked up. I call it Brenatto’s Zone of Silence.” She needed Caleb’s help to create it, but she’ll be damned if she’ll call it “Widogast’s” anything. She takes some cotton from her pocket, mashes it flat in her hand, and mutters a few words.

There’s a pause. “I, uh, I don’t feel anything different,” Yeza says hesitantly. “Did it work?”

Veth clears her throat. “HEY LUC,” she yells as loud as she can. “I BOUGHT YOU A BUNCH OF POISON-TIPPED CROSSBOW BOLTS. COME AND GET ‘EM!”

Yeza stares at her like she’s lost her mind, and Veth can’t help but start laughing. “If he could hear that, wouldn’t he come running?”

“Oh,” Yeza says. “Oh! That’s… that’s amazing. But I can still sort of hear the music from downstairs.”

“It doesn’t block sound from getting in, so if Luc knocks on the door or calls out for us, we’ll still hear him. He just can’t hear anything that goes on in this room.”

“Well, then…” Yeza says with a smile, approaching Veth with his arms outstretched.

“Just a minute,” Veth interrupts, schooling her face into a stern expression and holding out a finger to stop Yeza. “That burlesque show downstairs gave me an idea.”

Yeza’s face goes from flushed to pale. “Uh, honey, I’m pretty sure I can’t bend that way.”

“No, no, nothing complicated! Just… maybe I’d like to see you take some clothes off. _Slowly_.”

“Oh. Um.” He looks from side to side, like he expects there to be onlookers in their bedroom. “Really?”

“Sure. There’s enough of a beat coming up from downstairs.”

He glances down at his shirt, then back up at her. “But… you know what’s under here. I promise you, nothing’s changed.”

“I sure hope it hasn’t. I just thought this might be fun.”

“Okay, I’ll give it a try,” Yeza says, voice wavering. “But I hope you’re not expecting much.”

“I’m expecting whatever you’ve got,” Veth says, hopping up on the side of the bed and getting comfortable. “Come on, Brenatto, take it off!”

He chuckles awkwardly and looks himself over again, as if trying to determine where to begin. “Well, uh…” After a moment’s indecision, he hooks his thumbs behind his suspenders and tugs them away from his body. “Should I start with these?”

“Works for me!”

He starts doing a little dance in place, vaguely in time with the existing beat, and Veth’s heart swells. She’s not sure where this idea came from, other than the obvious, but she was in the mood to try something new, and she absolutely loves that her husband is willing to go along with it.

Yeza pulls one suspender off his shoulder and runs his hand up and down the other as he waggles his eyebrows. “Whaddya think? Is this doing it for you?”

“Woooo!” she cheers, throwing her hands in the air. “Keep going!”

The shirt gives him some problems, as he seems to have difficulty moving to a beat and unfastening buttons at the same time, but the look of concentration on his face, with his tongue poking halfway out of his mouth, is charming. Finally, he finishes the last of the buttons, and the tiniest look of panic crosses his face as he realizes he’s not sure what to do next.

“Take it off!” she reminds him, glancing around to see if there’s any silver to throw – though that might be a bit much. There isn’t, but there’s a stack of folded handkerchiefs on the bed, so she grabs one and fans herself with it. “Well, Mr. Brenatto, it seems it’s getting hot in here.”

“Is it?” he asks, glancing around. “I didn’t notice anything, but I’m—”

“No, no, I mean you,” she says, gesturing at the chest hair peeking out from the top of his undershirt. “You’re hot.”

“Oh, uh, thanks!” he says with a sheepish grin. “Do you want me to keep going?”

“Of course! But take your time – there’s no need to hurry.”

He interprets that literally, bless him, unbuckling his belt as though he’s moving in slow motion, and she has to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. The last thing she wants is for him to think she’s mocking him; he’s just so fucking cute she can’t stand it. There’s no way she’s going to last until he’s completely naked – she plans on dragging him over to the bed and finishing the job herself sooner rather than later – but she’s having fun with this, and she hopes he is, too.

Finally done with the belt, he looks up at her. Whatever he sees on her face makes him smile, and he locks eyes with her as he shuffles his trousers down, gyrating his hips. His smallclothes stay up, but she wants him to go at his own pace anyway, so she just bats her eyes at him and coyly stuffs the handkerchief into her cleavage. His eyes go dark at that, finally seeming to get into the performance, and he takes a step towards her—

–forgetting that his boots are still on. With his pants trapped around his ankles, there’s nowhere for him to go, and he topples over forward onto his face.

Veth is there in an instant, though not quite fast enough to catch him, and he lands hard on a knee and an elbow. The yelp of pain feels like a dagger in her chest, and she rolls him over into a seated position as quick as she can. “Oh, sweetie, are you okay?’

“Yes, um,” he says, looking down at his knee. It’ll probably bruise, but the skin’s not broken. “Just my pride. I… I don’t think I can do this.”

She chuckles, lifting his elbow to give it a kiss. “You were doing great.”

“No, I’m, um,” Yeza starts, and the tone of his voice makes Veth’s heart freeze in her chest. “I’m not sure I can… be this person.”

Veth forces herself to breathe. “What do you mean?”

“I just… if you want a man who can dance for you and look sexy taking off his clothes and collect magic swords—”

“Whoa, hold on—”

“I’m still just _me_ , Veth. I’m still the same small-town alchemist I always was. And yes, I’ve travelled a bit more and seen more of the world – not entirely by choice – but I’m not exciting or sexy and I don’t think I’m ever going to be, so—”

Veth does the only thing she can think of – she kisses him. It startles him so much that he hiccups, and it makes her laugh, which makes _him_ laugh, and then he can’t stop hiccupping and she can’t stop laughing.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she wheezes when she can finally get her breath back. “Not just about the laughing – about all of it. I wasn’t trying to make you feel awkward or not like yourself.” She puts her arms around his shoulders and pulls him close. “I just had an idea that I thought might be fun and hot. If it’s not, it’s not. The idea, I mean. _You’re_ always hot.”

He snuffles against her neck. “Well, that’s a lie.”

“Don’t call me a liar, Yeza Brenatto. I could have had a minotaur.”

He pulls back and stares at her wide-eyed. “Excuse me?”

“Yeah, that’s right, a minotaur,” she says, poking him in the ribs until he chuckles. “His name was Sunbreaker Olomon. We met him in Asarius, and he was all over me. Made an absolute fool of himself, throwing himself at my feet. ‘Oh, Nott, marry me, bear my mino-goblin babies!’”

The look on Yeza’s face is less jealous and more puzzled. “How… would that even work?”

“It wouldn’t, because I’m taken, so I turned him down. I don’t think he’ll ever get over it, but too bad for him.”

Yeza stares at her for a long moment. “That _was_ a lie.”

She smiles. “You’re right. Now ask me again if I think you’re hot.”

He sighs, but the corner of his mouth is curling up softly. “I know better than to argue with you.”

“There you go,” Veth says, getting to her feet and helping Yeza up. “For the record, I love that you were willing to try something new, but if it didn’t feel right, you never have to do it again.”

“Thank you,” he says gratefully.

She bends back down to work on his bootlaces. “We’ve still got 45 minutes left on that spell. Now let’s get these off of you so we can get in bed and you can do that thing to me with your tongue that I like so much. That is _very_ sexy and exciting.”

He flushes bright pink again and adjusts his glasses. “Yes, ma’am!”

**Author's Note:**

> …and they did travel on the ocean again, and they were not prepared. The End.


End file.
